Chris Rios’ week was motivated by a trip to the Meadowlands.

It began with the Sept. 7 Steelers at Jets game in East Rutherford, where he watched Pittsburgh prevail on a 60-yard field goal in the closing minutes.

“I’m a huge Steelers fan,” the Wood-Ridge senior said. “My dad, his first ever football game he watched was a Steelers’ Super Bowl [in the late ’70s]… he became a Steelers fan, and me and my brother just both grew into it.”

Perhaps the four touchdown passes that ex-Jets QB Aaron Rodgers threw inspired Rios’ own four-TD perfomance five days later against NJIC Patriot rival St. Mary.

“It pumped me up,” the Blue Devils quarterback said. “It just made me love football so much more than I already do. I just wanted the [St. Mary] game to come quicker than it did, I wanted to play so bad.”

His enthusiasm was palpable. Rios threw for one touchdown and rushed for three in a 26-16 upset of the defending division champions.

“They’d beaten us the past two years in a row,” he said. “We didn’t want that to happen again, so we just came in with a chip on our shoulder and played as hard as we could.”

Rios completed 15 of his 19 passes, maintaining his 79-percent completion rate for the season. Myles Simmonds caught his first scoring strike, but he was hardly the lone option.

“All of my wide receivers were mostly open,” Rios said. “We also have Chance Iacovino, Nick Scalera, Melvin Zabaleta and Owen Dodds, and I trust them with the ball. No matter where it’s going, they’re going to catch it. We just all have a great connection with each other.”

That can come naturally in a small town like Wood-Ridge, where the same youth players often end up as varsity teammates.

Rios started out with flag football around age 5 or 6. He actually played running back for most of his career.

“My eighth-grade year, we had no quarterbacks, so I went to quarterback,” he said. “I never really thought I’d like it, so I tried to switch to a different position, but they didn’t let me, and it worked out. I love playing quarterback now.”

Ostensibly, that runs in the family. His cousin Jake Diaz played QB at Hasbrouck Heights before graduating in 2022.

“He helped me when I was younger,” Rios said. “And one of my closest friends, Chance Iacovino, his brother was a quarterback who played with my brother [Dan], and they both helped me out a lot.”

Former Wood-Ridge coach Joe Cutrona was a factor in easing Chris’ transition. The second-year varsity starter got a chance to pay it forward when new coach Andrew Carbone took over this season.

“I’ve never been through a coaching change like that, so I was a little nervous,” Rios said. “But the coaches came in, and they made [the transition] as smooth as possible, and I’m so happy that they came.”

With the Blue Devils trying to continue a string of four consecutive playoff appearances – the longest such streak in program history – his team is receiving strong community support as well.

“All my friends who don’t play football are always in the crowd,” Rios said. “The families in Wood-Ridge always come down and support us. It’s always loud, and it’s always a great time.”